Lost during and after WWII when the BB transferred it for safe keeping to a monastery in Lower Silesia

After the war it somehow disappeared and was later rediscovered toward the end of the 1970s, along with other valuable manuscripts in the Biblioteka Jagiellonska of the Jagiellonski University in Krakow, Poland. This is where it is located today.

Description of the autograph score:

The score can be dated to 1742 or one of the following years. Although this late date can be verified by Bach’s handwriting style of that period, the cantata essentially stems from an earlier period. Mvts. 1, 2, 4 and possibly 5 look back to previous compositions. The cantata may have been performed on either August 17, 1742, August 26, 1743, or August 31, 1744. Nevertheless, the larger portion of the music involved here stems from 1729 or a little earlier. There is no solid evidence for a specific performance date for this proto version of this Ratskantate in this earlier time range.

On the back of page 8 is mvt. 6, Choral, and after m 16: Fine and below that: In Fine Intrada con Trombe | e Tamburi [This Intrada is missing. It is not known whether this Intrada would have been Bach’s own composition.]

below this on the same page is mvt. 3, Recit Basso at the end of which Aria appears

The handwriting of 5 separate individuals can be distinguished (one is Johann Ludwig Krebs and another is J. S. Bach)

B. A fragmentary autograph score

Earliest known owner of this score after Bach’s death is Johann Ludwig Erk (1807-1883). After his death, the manuscript went to the BB (Staatsbibliothek Berlin).

Title page is missing, the score begins with the end of mvt. 4 (mm 128-138).

For the remaining mvts. indicates the usual instrumentation, Da Capo, Volti, Aria, Recit., and Choral. For the final chorale indicates:

Die Trompetten u. Pauken pausiren den 1. Vers. At the end Bach writes: Fine | D.S.G. A final separate page is a fragment (incomplete conclusion) of another unknown cantata. It appears to be the end of an aria (only 5 mm of the basso continuo are written out, after which Bach writes D.C., then Recit. with the following text incipit: Bey Jesu bin ich auch nicht fremde etc., then Choral. followed by empty staves. This has been identified as the conclusion of a cantata for the 2nd Day of Easter, text by Picander-Henrici: “Ich bin ein Pilgrim auf der Welt” from his cantata cycle printed in 1728 (reprinted in his Ernst=Schertzhaffte und Satyrische Gedichte. Theil III, Leipzig, 1732, pp. 123-124.

The score was probably composed in great haste: “Wahrscheinlich ist diese Trauungskantate in großer Eile entstanden” Likewise the copy process was also affected by the pressure of time with many errors due to carelessness caused by haste: “Die besondere Eile bei der Anfertigung der Hs. A läßt sich aus den Fehlern entnehmen.” (p. 59)

The BG publications, BGA 41, pp. 149ff. Alfred Dörffel, 1894 and BGA 13, pp. XIV, Wilhelm Rust, 1864, did not have access to the fragmentary score. The first description of the autograph score was published in 1936

BWV 120b (June 26, 1730 2nd Day of Jubilation on the 200th Anniversary of the Augsburg Confession)

(NBA KB I/34 p. 46, 1990)

Sources:

Music is lost

All that remains of this cantata are two printings of the text: “Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille”